What do you do when you lose four consecutive ballot initiatives by a 2-1 margin in two elections over a span of 35 days?
In North Arlington you take $11,000,000 and you spend $7,000,000 on a building you don’t need and then decide to invest another $3,200,000, in upgrades and improvements in that same building that doesn’t house a single student or teacher!
Makes sense, right?
For that is the position of the North Arlington Board of Education, five detached and distant elected officials and an out-of-town superintendent who really don’t care what voters want or can afford.
A board dominated by school teachers who put their professions first and homeowners last.
People who believe raising taxes is just part of the job and they have the inability to say “no” to anything.
In essence, they have become a “door mat” to this man from Bayonne.
Despite owning and operating the Middle School, Jefferson, Washington, Roosevelt and NAHS the district would rather take $11,000,000 in school surplus funds (school tax dollars unspent) in a facility that is too big and not needed then invest those same dollars in physical plants that demand renovations now!
It is hard to believe given how badly those ballot questions lost that even a majority of school-age parents support the current school board and their ambitious superintendent who now seems prepared to once again squeeze more money out of a beleaguered and exhausted North Arlington homeowner.
In other words, the last four defeats will be ignored and let the voter be damned!
The arrogance of the Board of Education seems to know no bounds, and that these trustees will continue to lecture the voting public that they know best and you know nothing at all!
Simultaneously you have an all GOP Mayor and Council that are petrified of taking a public position on referendums that have no public support. In fact they actually supported the $20,000,000 in new taxes the Board of Education sought but lacked the will or courage to tell voters the truth!
Pronti pretends to be a conservative, but wouldn’t stand up for taxpayers.
Local Democrats listened to the bad advice of a candidate who took the entire ticket with him, to a defeat that should have been an easy win!
A first-time candidate who finished last!
North Arlington can change things by finding two new candidates for the Board of Education in 2020. They can also recruit candidates for the council who have the will to challenge Pronti and Company and not run a “me too” campaign that will certainly go down in flames as it did in 2019.
The current GOP Mayor and Council is a collection of pawns, pieces on a political chess board 100% controlled by Dan Pronti.
The two candidates for reelection in 2020 will have no record and will be told what to say and what to do by political bosses Pronti and Bocchino.
This transformation of North Arlington into an extension of Hudson County and Harrison will continue as this “urbanization” and construction of apartment dwellings will eliminate all that is small, safe and suburban about this special community.
Courage and competence is what we need in political leadership.
The courage to fight what is wrong and the competence to do what the people expect.
Hopefully these will be the qualities of two school board candidates and two additional Democrats for the Borough Council.
Those are the stakes in 2020 for NA voters.
Let’s hope their up to the challenge.
Want to comment?
Email us at [email protected]